Trans-Pacific doctoral success – A collaborative cohort model

The San Jose Gateway PhD program is a doctoral partnership between the School of Information at San Jose State University (SJSU) in the USA, and the Information Systems School at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. Because of Californian legislation, SJSU has not been able to offer PhD degrees. The Gateway Program therefore provides a research pathway for SJSU’s coursework students. It also helps the School to grow the research capacity of academic staff. For QUT, the Program provides the opportunity to advance research agendas and to build strong international connections and partnerships. The Program began in 2008. It is a distance-delivered cohort-based scheme with new students commencing in August of each year. All students are enrolled as part-time students in QUT’s Doctor of Philosophy. Each student is assigned supervisors from both universities. In addition to individual and group supervisory meetings, all students and supervisors meet in a virtual meeting space once a month. The online monthly meetings are supplemented by two residential events each year: (i) a one week face to face residential in August at San Jose State University, and (ii) an online residential in March. This paper will critically reflect upon this unique Program, which has led to high quality research outcomes, rapid completions, and noteworthy graduate employments. Critical consideration of the challenges and future proofing of the approach will also be explored

Unravelling reading : evaluating the effectiveness of strategies used to support adults' reading skills

This thesis reports on research into ways of evaluating the effectiveness of strategies to improve adults' reading skills. It explores what counts as an improvement in reading skills for adults; examines practical and ethical issues in measuring improvements in reading skills; considers Kruidenier's (2002) categorisation of reading into components (alphabetic, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension); evaluates how far individual differences impact on an adult reader's capability to improve; identifies features of good support for adults' reading skills; and recommends changes in policy and practice. The research paradigm is eclectic, exploring approaches for an interventionalist practitioner-researcher. In the tradition of action research, the study seeks to bring about positive change on an individual level for each learner, improvements in practice at a pedagogical level for teachers and, at a policy level, recommendations for more effective teaching and learning. The research is framed as a multiple case study based on Yin (2009). In an initial study, tools for assessment and support were piloted and evaluated. The main study extended the methodology, using 5 fellow practitioners as collaborator researchers. A total of 10 adult learners completed a one-to-one support programme with materials and approaches tailored to each learner's interests and needs. Techniques included work to extend vocabulary, word recognition skills, fluency and comprehension, based on a series of original guidance sheets, linking findings from research to practice. Analysis of results included quantitative measures of changes in accuracy, reading speed and comprehension. Qualitative analysis stemmed from detailed profiles of learners' progress, detailed observational records and evaluation of emerging trends, 'leading to a discussion of key themes for future policy and practice. The key findings include: an increase in individuals' reading skills following even a short period of individualised support; the identification of effective strategies like vocabulary development and paired reading; the importance of taking into consideration the characteristics of learners, their social setting and sources of motivation; the positive impact of one-to-one support; and considerable light cast on assessment practice. The thesis ends with recommendations for: further work on the assessment and support of comprehension skills; using detailed learner profiling as an assessment technique; supporting a claim for the effectiveness of one-to-one support in adult literacy; and guidance for practitioners on implementing a wider range of strategies to support adults' reading

The Awakening and Growth of the Human Infant: A Telecourse Study Guide for Infant Mental Health Practitioners

This Study Guide is an accompaniment to The Awakening and Growth of the Human: Studies in Infant Mental Health , a series of 10 videotapes, produced and narrated by Mr. Michael Trout. The Infant Mental Health Telecourse materials consist of the Study Guide, the Trout Videotapes, and 30 highly recommended readings on infant mental health topics. An Instructor\u27s Guide is available.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1260/thumbnail.jp

Wear and rim damage of UHMWPE acetabular cups in total hip replacement

Wear and fatigue of polyethylene acetabular cups have been reported to play a role in the failure of total hip replacements. Edge loading of hip replacements can occur where there is sub-optimal component positioning and/or joint laxity. Wear resistance can be improved by crosslinking but the manufacturing process of these materials involves post-irradiation thermal treatments to recombine free radicals and to stabilise the materials. Stabilisation can also be achieved by adding antioxidants. Material degradation due to oxidation and manufacturing process can result in rim cracking and/or fracture due to a reduction in mechanical properties and this has been observed in vivo. A requirement for pre-clinical hip simulator testing under edge loading conditions for all of these materials has therefore been identified. This thesis describes the development and evaluation of a hip simulator edge loading protocol using accelerated aged conventional UHMWPE acetabular liners as positive controls and commercially available crosslinked UHMWPE acetabular liners as negative controls. The edge loading protocol was then used to evaluate antioxidant stabilised liners in hip simulator tests. Explanted UHMWPE acetabular liners were evaluated for wear and damage mechanisms and compared with the damage observed on the hip simulator tested liners and new methodologies were developed to measure and analyse these explanted liners. The edge loading protocol produced cracking and subsurface damage in the aged UHMWPE liners but not in the non-aged crosslinked liners. Rim deformation was observed on all liners and the volume change produced was reduced under edge loading conditions for both types of UHMWPE liner. The antioxidant liners performed as well as the commercially available crosslinked liner in hip simulator tests and the rim deformation that was observed on explanted liners was replicated under edge loading conditions in the hip simulator tests. The edge loading protocol can be used in the future to test a range of UHMWPE materials, including aged materials, and explant analysis using the methodologies developed in this study can be used to inform the design of future simulator tests

Ethical standards for psychological practice in the UAE: current status and aspirations

There is a growing body of global research demonstrating the significance of mental health to individuals’ overall happiness and productivity. The research evidence has encouraged governmental agencies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to divert more attention toward the provision and development of mental health services. As the sector grows, one of the first issues of concern is the adherence to a unified set of ethics of practice. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the existing ethical codes of conduct relevant to the mental health profession in the unique context of the UAE. Specifically, this discussion will focus on the interaction of cultural factors with the ethical standards of confidentiality, informed consent, and multiple relationships. This paper provides an initial reference for researchers and practitioners to explore regional issues of ethical standards in mental health services

Living and dead bivalves are congruent surrogates for whole benthic macroinvertebrate communities in Puget Sound

To integrate paleoecological data with the “whole fauna” data used in biological monitoring, analyses usually must focus on the subset of taxa that are inherently preservable, for example by virtue of biomineralized hardparts, and those skeletal remains must also be identifiable in fragmentary or otherwise imperfect condition, thus perhaps coarsening analytical resolution to the genus or family level. Here we evaluate the ability of readily preserved bivalves to reflect patterns of compositional variation from the entire infaunal macroinvertebrate fauna as typically sampled by agencies in ocean monitoring, using data from ten long-established subtidal stations in Puget Sound, Washington State. Similarity in compositional variation among these stations was assessed for five taxonomic subsets (the whole fauna, polychaetes, malacostracans, living bivalves, dead bivalves) at four levels of taxonomic resolution (species, genera, families, orders) evaluated under four numerical transformations of the original count data (proportional abundance, square root- and fourth root-transformation, presence-absence). Using the original matrix of species-level proportional abundances of the whole fauna as a benchmark of “compositional variation,” we find that living and dead bivalves had nearly identical potential to serve as surrogates of the whole fauna; they were further offset from the whole fauna than was the polychaete subset (which dominates the whole fauna), but were far superior as surrogates than malacostracans. Genus- and family-level data were consistently strong surrogates of species-level data for most taxonomic subsets, and correlations declined for all subsets with increasing severity of data transformation, although this effect lessened for subsets with high community evenness. The strong congruence of death assemblages with living bivalves, which are themselves effective surrogates of compositional variation in the whole fauna, is encouraging for using bivalve dead-shell assemblages to complement conventional monitoring data, notwithstanding strong natural environmental gradients with potential to bias shell preservation

Three Pseudomonas putida FNR Family Proteins with Different Sensitivities to O-2

The Escherichia coli fumarate-nitrate reduction regulator (FNR) protein is the paradigm for bacterial O2-sensing transcription factors. However, unlike E. coli, some bacterial species possess multiple FNR proteins that presumably have evolved to fulfill distinct roles. Here, three FNR proteins (ANR, PP_3233, and PP_3287) from a single bacterial species, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, have been analyzed. Under anaerobic conditions, all three proteins had spectral properties resembling those of [4Fe-4S] proteins. The reactivity of the ANR [4Fe-4S] cluster with O2 was similar to that of E. coli FNR, and during conversion to the apo-protein, via a [2Fe-2S] intermediate, cluster sulfur was retained. Like ANR, reconstituted PP_3233 and PP_3287 were converted to [2Fe-2S] forms when exposed to O2, but their [4Fe-4S] clusters reacted more slowly. Transcription from an FNR-dependent promoter with a consensus FNR-binding site in P. putida and E. coli strains expressing only one FNR protein was consistent with the in vitro responses to O2. Taken together, the experimental results suggest that the local environments of the iron-sulfur clusters in the different P. putida FNR proteins influence their reactivity with O2, such that ANR resembles E. coli FNR and is highly responsive to low concentrations of O2, whereas PP_3233 and PP_3287 have evolved to be less sensitive to O2